He said some of the alarming numbers in the survey mirror what has already been found in Britain, where radical Islam is a growing movement.

Based on the Pew Research Center figure of a total of 2.3 million American Muslims, Pipes noted that "one percent is 23,000 people - that's not a small number of people."

"The fact that the Muslim population is doing well economically is good news, [but] it doesn't translate into good news politically," he said.

'No opinion on al Qaeda'

Sixty-eight percent of respondents said they had an unfavorable view of al Qaeda, five percent had a favorable opinion, and a sizeable number - 27 percent - said they had no opinion.

Hooper was dismissive of that finding. "You could ask all Americans if the moon is made of green cheese and five percent would say yes," he said.

"In the post-9/11 atmosphere, a lot of Muslims prefer not to put their opinions out there. When we do our polling, a lot of Muslims won't answer, because they are afraid of entrapment."

As for the fact that a majority of respondents either don't think Arabs were behind 9/11 or say they don't know, Hooper called it "just a bit of wishful thinking. They would hope no Muslim is capable of that." He added that "a growing number of Americans [are] buying into conspiracy theories" about 9/11.

"The idea of conspiracy theories runs wild in the Arab community," Kamal Nawash, president of the Free Muslims Coalition, told Cybercast News Service. "The five percent that supports al Qaeda is the only number that concerns me. Other than that, the numbers don't have practical concerns to Americans."

Nawash, whose group is often at odds with CAIR, said he did not believe those who indicated support for suicide bombings would be willing to carry out such attacks in the U.S.

They were speaking in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said, adding that such an attitude would change once Muslims understand that suicide and murder are forbidden by Islam in all circumstances.

"They've seen mixed messages that it was wrong in every instance, but Israel was the exception. That's wrong for a whole bunch of reasons," Nawash said. "One of the consequences of this double standard is the Muslims are now the biggest victims of suicide bombings in Iraq."

Nawash does concede that the percentages supporting violence, though small, should not be ignored. "It only takes one to cause trouble," he said. "The answer to this is a united message from Muslim clergy" against radical Islam.

Jasser agreed. "It is the responsibility of the majority of Muslims to fight political Islam and the radicalization of the youth that engender these conspiracy theories and moral corruption," he said.

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